It’s time to leverage on crowdsourcing to grow your business

Have you ever tried crowdsourcing? You should. The idea of outsourcing a task or project to a network of people is appealing as it lets businesses get their work done affordably. It has done wonders for businesses big and small. So, what are the ways crowdsourcing can help your business grow?

There are different types of crowdsourcing that you can leverage on for your business – cloud labour, crowd creativity, crowdfunding, distributed knowledge, and open innovation. Here are some answers to the questions you may have and examples from companies that are making good use of crowdsourcing.

Are you in need of brand exposure?

Crowdsourcing can turbo-charge marketing efforts, providing companies with the ability to tap into the skills and creativity of people that they might not normally reach out to.

In 2013, Samsung teamed up with one of the top fashion designer, Alexander Wang, on a unique marketing collaboration. Wang produced a new handbag design from crowdsourced images or sketches using Samsung GALAXY Note II.

Apple also used crowdsourcing to promote its iPhone 6 ad campaign – “Shot on iPhone”. Apple combed through social media for photos taken with the iPhone, and it ended up gathering shots from 77 people in 24 countries. The chosen ones were then displayed on billboards, bus stops and train stations around the world to showcase the power of the iPhone 6’s camera.

Do you need ideas and creativity?

You can also use crowdsourcing to generate new ideas. For example, IBM introduced “Jams” back in 2001 to crowdsource potential product innovations. The Innovation Jam in 2006 involved over 150,000 people from around the world. These Innovation Jams over the years ultimately led to 10 new IBM businesses being created, for which, roughly US$100 million in seed funding was raised.

McDonald’s also had the crowdsourcing bug in 2012. They tapped their German customers to create new product ideas using an online burger creator. Roughly 300,000 new recipes were created and over 5 million people voted for their favourite, resulting in the launch of the Pretzelnator.

Do you need feedback/ insights for products or services?

Knowing what your customers think about key elements of your business will make it easier to keep them happy. Whether you use Facebook/ Twitter to run a quick opinion poll or have sites like uTest measure a few vital signs, crowdsourcing makes getting the answers that your business needs easier than ever.

Microsoft has used crowdsourcing to gather feedback and make A/B test changes to its search engine, Bing, for years. Using Lionbridge, crowdsourcing has become a critical way for Microsoft to collect user input for product development in a broad and scalable fashion.

Meanwhile, Google uses crowdsourcing to help fill in the gaps left by conventional approaches in Google Maps.

Do you need help with your work?

Whether you need some design work or curating content there are plenty of talented professionals out there who can do the work faster and cheaper.

You can also get some help to get you more leads, manage your data and moderate your content – just get in touch with us, Supahands! We’re happy to assist you with our pool of crowdsourced labor. Take some work off your plate so you can concentrate on the core task of running your business.

Crowdsourcing works. What are you waiting for? Start crowdsourcing for better growth.